The fallout from the weirdness at OpenAI

Five very weird days passed before it seemed that Sam Altman would stay at OpenAI after all. On November 17th the board of the maker of Chatgpt suddenly booted out its chief executive. On the 19th it looked as if Mr Altman would move to Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor. But employees at the startup rose up in revolt, with almost all of them, including one of the board’s original conspirators, threatening to leave were Mr Altman not reinstated. Between frantic meetings, the top brass tweeted heart emojis and fond messages to each other. By the 21st, things had come full circle.

All this seems stranger still considering that these shenanigans were taking place at the world’s hottest startup, which had been expected to reach a valuation of nearly $90bn. In part, the weirdness is a sign of just how quickly the relatively young technology of generative artificial intelligence has been catapulted to glory. But it also holds deeper and more disturbing lessons.